Cosmic Gate: Entrancing Malaysia Again

By Hanna Redzuan  •  in Interview
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Trance music titans, Cosmic Gate, are no strangers to Future Music Festival and of course, playing in Malaysia. They’ve been here countless times and played both outdoor festivals and club venues. Nic Chagall and Bossi have constantly evolved their sounds for more than 10 years of their career proving their status as one of the most creative and highly demanded dance acts in the globe. Cosmic Gate has recently released their latest album Wake Your Mind. The first single off the album ‘Be Your Sound’ has already received a nomination at the International Dance Music Awards. The German duo is set to enthral their fans with euphoric sounds at the inaugural Future Music Festival Asia this month! JUICE spoke to one half of Cosmic Gate, Bossi, to talk about their fondness for performing in Malaysia and some of their favourite female vocalists in the scene…

How many Future Music Festivals have you guys played before?
We played once in Australia and we’re definitely looking forward to the one coming up in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is definitely a great place for parties even without the presence of big festivals. But with the emergence of FMFA, our gig this time around is definitely going to be off the hook!

You guys have been here a couple of times before already, what is it about our scene that you like the most?
What we love about Malaysia is that the people are friendly and the crowd is always into the music we play and we always get a good response every time we play there so that’s why we have big smiles on our faces when we play in Malaysia.

Being here numerous times already, have you had any time to do some proper holidaying in the country?
Unfortunately, we’ve never had more than a couple of hours in Kuala Lumpur every time we come for a gig but if you could recommend us an amazing place to visit there, we will definitely make the time to come over just for a holiday.

Not to be presumptuous, is the track, ‘Trip to PD’ in the Signs of the Times album really about Port Dickson?
Absolutely! It’s dedicated to that day we played in Port Dickson alongside Tiesto back in 2008.

What was special about that trip that made you guys dedicate a song for it?
We had an idea for a track when we arrived in Kuala Lumpur and we finished the track after our set ended. So it was very appropriate to call it ‘Trip to PD’. The trip Port Dickson was perfect and the atmosphere was great and it gave us the right inspiration at the time so it felt right to dedicate a song to PD.

‘Be Your Sound’, your latest single featuring Emma Hewitt, has been nominated for an IDMA (International Dance Music Awards), what was the inspiration behind this?
We usually write the music first and then the singers will write the lyrics based on our production but this time around with Emma, we did it the other way around. For the first time, the singer sent us the basic vocal harmonies and then we worked the music based on that. We were full with inspiration when Emma sent us her recorded vocals. We couldn’t be happier about ‘Be Your Sound’, especially after receiving this nomination.

How did the collaboration with Emma Hewitt come about in the first place?
It actually begin before we released Sign of the Times, we heard her voice and said to ourselves that we want to work with her. Naturally, we contacted her immediately and she agreed to do collaboration. We wrote a song that would suit her vocals and she came back with the vocal portion and that’s how ‘Not Enough Time’ was created. After listening to the finished product, we decided to release that as our first single for Sign of the Times. Ever since our first collaboration with her, we toured together a lot and we became good friends. She’s really a special and gifted artist with a lovely personality and we plan to do more collaboration with her in the future.

You worked with so many different singers in Wake Your Mind; can you give us brief descriptions on some of them?
Aruna – We met her a few years ago but we never got around to working with each other until the recording of Sign of the Times and it worked out perfectly! She’s just so talented and has an outstanding voice and after that first time, we said to ourselves that we would work with her again.

Alana Aldea – She’s like a new talent that we discovered for the new album, we sent her the two tracks and she came back with her vocals, its perfection. She’s an Australian by the way and this won’t be the last time that we’ll be working with her.

JES – She’s a legend! The sun shines every time she sings and it’s simply a huge honour to work with her and ‘Flying Blind’ which features her voice is one of our favourite songs from the album.

A lot of trance producers have either quit making that kind of sound or denounced their relation to the scene but not you guys, what’s your motivation for keeping true to trance?
It’s simply because we make music that we like. A lot of people have commented that we don’t make trance music but we still think it is. Trance has been evolving a lot and it will keep on progressing in the future too as for all kinds of genre. We’re constantly following this progression and it doesn’t really matter what people say we play at the end of the day; we play music that we like.

Why do you think trance is such a bad word, some people cringe at the very mention of it.
Personally we think the trance sounds these days is more underground compared to most of the house music that’s been playing everywhere. If you think about it, house music is more commercialised than trance.

You and Nic Chagall have been working together for about 15 years now, what’s the secret of your perfect partnership?
We just have great chemistry and we have the same approach to our music. We hardly argue about what is going on because we’re basically on the same page of what Cosmic Gate is all about.

Do you guys still like going clubbing when you don’t have to work?
Honestly, we don’t really have the time to go out clubbing because of our tight work commitments but when there are events like Winter Music Festival and we have time in between our gigs, we try to check out all the different gigs happening there. We think it’s important to have an open mind when it comes to music. We love clubbing and EDM so we’re always up to checking out and learning new things.

Let’s get back to Future Music Festival Asia, are you guys going to try something new for your set here?
Well, we’re not going to try anything too crazy. Every set we play is different from the other. We like to read the crowd and the DJ playing before us to gauge on what we should be playing for our set. We do have a lot of new remixes other producers have done on the tracks off our new album. We’ll be playing a lot of new material off our latest album, Wake Your Mind and probably throw in some classic tunes into our set.

What do you think is important for the audience to do at the festival?
Keep yourselves hydrated by drinking a lot of water and please do check out acts that are out of your comfort zone. It’s always good to learn new things.

Any message to your legion of fans here and around the region
This is Bossi from Cosmic Gate saying hello to all of you out there. See you there at Future Music Festival Asia. We are super excited for it so don’t forget to get your tickets!

Enter the cosmic gate at cosmic-gate.de. Future Music Festival Asia is happening this 17 March. Get tickets at airasiaredtix.com or check out www.futuremusicfestival.asia for more deets on the festival.